I prefer Brett’s Holmes,
principally because his sudden hoots, black
moody fits and wild starts
of athleticism
(in short: his w
hole suite of ma
nners) startle the
viewer, what with
their fidelity to Holmes!
As writ by Doyle. Rathbone plays
a more straightlaced take, supremely
so. No one could fault those who put
Rathbone first. He is era-appropriate,
and yet…and yet…our man Holmes
was never era-appropriate, not in any era.
This alone would not be fatal or decisive. For
me, the crashing miscue in the Rathbone dram
atizations was casting Watson as a comedy rel
ief buffoon. What the Brett series gets A+ righ
t is: Watson is by far the more respectable of t
he two. Literally the only human being (apart f
rom the odd villain) who makes light of Watso
n is Holmes, and Holmes does it relentlessly! I
n Brett’s Holmes, while two distinct actors pla
y the Watson role, we’re never invited to laugh a
t any fault of Watson’s (indeed, only Ben Kingsley
ever
played a more all-’round competent John W.). It is
simply
that
Brett’s
Holmes
astonishes us: a
static dynamo o
f tics, blank affe
ct and sudden, s
weeping charge.
Neither Watson
nor we the audi
ence could keep
up with Holmes.
Jeremy Brett inhabits the role like only he ever has.
It is a pity for Holmes fans that his illness overtook h
im during production. The series unravels painfully ov
er the final season, as brother Mycroft is suddenly press
ed into service as the action figure crime-buster He surel
y
was
never meant to be.
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